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February 16, 2005
The Things Kids Play With
Today before tutoring I stopped off at Atomic Books and found a fortune telling miracle fish. One of those fish made of plastic film that you put in the palm of your hand to find your fortune. If the fish moves its head it's one thing. If it curls up it's another. Wiggling its sides means that you have a totally different demeanor -- I think that's what it actually was, not fortune because thit indicated "fickle."
I brought it to the Family Center and showed it to a couple kids. What was I thinking? The kids were all running around trying to get their fortunes told. "Me next! Me next!"
"No. We have tutoring now."
"C'mon. Just one more."
"Alright, one more."
"Hey! What about me."
"Nope. That's it."
"C'mon. I want my fortune."
"No."
"Where'd you get it?"
"At the book store."
The kid ran out the door. He came back a couple minutes later with a few of the fish. He was passing them around, generally keeping everyone from being productive. Then one ripped.
The girl I was tutoring tried to pull it out of the little plastic sleeve it came in and she ripped the tail off. "Don't worry, Adam. I'll buy you another one." She started to search through her "Boys Rule" purse for change.
"Not now. We have to do your homework."
"I ripped his fish. I have to get him a new one."
"You can do that later."
"Uh uh. Do you have forty cents?"
"See. This is a good place to start. If the fish are only 20 cents and you want to replace his, how much do you need?"
"I gotta get one for me too, though."
"No, you don't need to now. You can get one later."
"Well, I'm not doing my homework until I get a fish."
She sat and turned her back to me. Now I can't force her to do her homework, and she's proven she's just as happy, if not more, not doing her homework as she is doing it. So we made a deal. I don't want to go into the details because it may make me sound like I caved to a 14 year old, which I assure you is not the case. I did, however, end up going down to the store to get a couple more fish.
Damned kids. So childish with their fish.
Damn it. I used to play with those fish. I still do. I used to play with even stupider things. I guess they're OK kids.
In fact I remember being enamored little stamps of Beetle Bailey my brother got once for his birthday. This was back in the days when we shared everything -- "Hey, check this out! If you mix the cat food and the dog food you get a salad!" -- and he let me play with the stamps.
Using them you could mix and match scenes to make your own fake Beetle Bailey cartoon strip. The word bubbles were empty affording you the chance to even make the characters say what was on your mind. "Beetle! Wake up and clean the latrine."
"But Sarge, I was dreaming of the General."
Of course, having never heard of Beetle Bailey at the time we both quickly tired of the intended use and just stamped things around the house. "Look. I put one on the bottom of the kitchen table."
Around that time some girls from the neighborhood came over to play. One was younger than me, the other was my brother's age - a year older than me, 7.
"Guess where I put mine."
"Where?"
"Guess."
"I don't know. Tell me."
"I can't tell you. I have to show you."
"Show me."
Then she pulled down her pants to show me something my mother had convinced me (at the time) I didn't want to see until I "was married." There was a stamp right above.
Then just as quickly she hid it away.
"I think it was smeared."
How quickly we can graduate to more "grown up" pursuits.
Posted by calculatoronfire at February 16, 2005 09:29 PM